Bringer of Darkness
by NixyKnight
Summary: Imagine having one of the Big 3 Gods for a godly parent. Now imagine having a Titan for a parent. Now, imagine a God even more powerful than that. That's where you find my mom. That's what started this.That's how I became known as the Bringer of Darkness.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone :) This is my first story so cut me some slack... it's intertwining with SonOfHephaestus118's "Son of Hephaestus". **

**Enjoy !**

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><p>My name is Arianna Montgomery, Aria for short. I'm 16 years old, a little on the short side at 5'4", with dark black hair, cut choppy with layered side bangs, deep purple eyes, and pale white skin. I'm not very athletic, but I've had to be.<p>

And oh yeah, I'm a demigod.

Since I was 6 years old I've been on my own, on the run from every monster in the book. I mean seriously. I didn't have time to grow up as a normal kid and believe they're all fairytales like most people. I was just thrown in head first to a big pile of Greek Mythology whether I liked it or not. With all the trouble that surrounded me, I used to think that's why my parents left me as a baby. Man was I wrong.

It really started when I was around 4, my social worker- Who I later found out was my guardian- Jennifer Lockwood, had me packed up and moving constantly. We were hiding for years, until my 5th birthday when she disappeared. Since then it's been me, a half-full suitcase, and a hell of a lot of improvising.

I got to camp when I was just 6 years old. Chiron, our camp activities director helped get me back on my feet after some problems with a Hydra hot on my tail, and then I was thrown into camp life. It was okay at first, I was tossed into the Hermes Cabin with the rest of the unclaimed kids, and the cabin was pretty full so I was never alone. At least not physically. I mean, after everything I'd gone through, fighting and running and hiding and losing everything I ever knew, and my godly parent still didn't think they should claim me. I used to think I wasn't important because of that.

And I still wasn't claimed either, not until 5 years ago, when I killed a minotaur single-handedly. No one knew what it was at first, a silvery purple smoky crescent moon swimming in the air above my head. It even took Chiron a little while to figure it out. I mean, having a demigod with one of the Big Three- Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades- is powerful enough, but _my_ mom...

_"That's Nyx's symbol." Clovis mumbled between yawns._

_"Sorry, what?" I asked, still lying on the ground in the ashes of the minotaur I'd just slaughtered._

_"Nyx, the Goddess of Night," He repeated, "My grandmother."_

_I stood up and looked to Chiron but he just gave me a wide eyed blank stare. It was a mixture of confusion and absolute terror._

_And I soo did not like him directing that look at _me.

_"Oh dear Gods," My best friend, Rainie, whispered, "Nyx is a-"_

_"Protogenoi," Chiron suddenly interrupted, "One of the original Gods born of Chaos. More powerful than an Olympian. More powerful than a Titan. Her power rivals with Gaia."_

_Suddenly my legs went shaky and I had to sit back down again._

_"Hail Aria Montgomery, Daughter of the Goddess of Night, Mother of the Fates, the Hellhounds, Styx herself, Nemesis, Hypnos, among others."_

_"Damn." Was all I could manage to say._

_Suddenly we heard a low grumbling roar in the distance and Chiron turned to me._

_"What, exactly, were you being chased by?"_

_"A minotaur and half a dozen of his Lastrygonian buddies."_

_"Everyone inside, _now_." He ordered._

_Rainie helped me stand up again and guided me inside, where Dinner was just being served at the Dining Pavilion. I headed to my cabin to get washed up a little first, well, the Hermes cabin. I was still coming to grips with the fact that my mother was more powerful than the Titans. And besides, she didn't exactly have a cabin around here._

_I washed up, and, feeling refreshed after my most interesting day, started walking to dinner._

_And then it all went black._

_Classic._


	2. Chapter 2

_I was standing in the dark._

_And I mean pitch black, no light, whatsoever._

_And then there was this deep purple glow right in front of me, as my eyes adjusted. I realized I was looking at a woman, her skin glowing a soft shade of lavender._

_"I hope you don't mind the dark, " she said, a warm smile playing across her lips, " It makes me feel at home."_

_I stuttered and stammered over my words, she was absolutely beautiful._

_"It's... it's o-okay." I managed._

_She looked me up and down with dark purple eyes that flickered with a black flame. Her hair was extremely long, flowing down behind her in shades of silky black and violet like a dark cloud of smoke., her dress held the same illusion, like it was handcrafted from dark purple clouds and wrapped around her body._

_"Aria," she said," I need you to do something for me," I nodded slowly, she smiled again, "I need you to find a pair of demigods for me. Matthew Walker and Joshua Kovalchik. They are very powerful and need to be protected. I'm trusting you with this task."_

_"But how am I supposed to do that?"_

_"You'll find a way, you always do." She smiled, but looked to the ground slightly when a dark wave swept over her face. "Except, this time you won't have your guardian to look after you."_

_"Guardian?"_

_"Jennifer Lockwood." A knot formed in my stomach._

_"Jenny? My social worker? She died when I was a kid."_

_"You guardian. And she's been with you since she left, only in hiding, keeping you safe in secrecy for the past 11 years."_

_It took a few seconds for that to sink in. I mean, it made sense. There were so many times when I'd made it out of trouble when I really shouldn't have; last year, I accidentally ran into Medusa's layer, but somehow a statue fell and landed on her, giving me time to get out. Or the year before that, I was corned by a Cyclops, and by some sort of luck the lights went out and I managed to sneak out. There's been so many times when things looked horrible, but I somehow got out. Well I guess it wasn't luck. It was Jenny. But not anymore._

_"What happened to her?" I asked, "Why can't she help me this time?"_

_The woman sighed and waved a hand. Suddenly to my left was a bright screen of purple clouds floating in the air. There were images on the screen... Jenny... my social worker - guardian - humming in her kitchen. Someone was sitting at her table. A man... except , he had two faces. and I mean two faces. One on either side of his head. Jenny had a hard time looking at either one. The man sipped his tea on either side and said,_

_"Ms Lockwood, It's better off if you trust me, and just give the half-blood over to us. She's not worth risking your life over every day!" Jenny's face turned to stone. The man's other face chimed in,_

_"Forget him. Keep the girl, and keep her safe. You know how much she's worth!"_

_"Oh shut up," the other face interrupted," She's going to die anyway. You heard the prophecy."_

_The second face scowled and took another sip of tea._

_"It might not mean her. Prophecies are confusing... it could mean someone else."_

_"I'm protecting her," Jenny said, pounding her fist on the table, "It is my duty as her guardian. I would rather die than see her taken by Hades."_

_The man's faces both looked surprised._

_"Very well then." They said in unison. Then the two-faced man snapped his fingers, and Jenny was gone._

_The screen disappeared and I turned back to the smoke lady, who looked at me mournfully._

_"I'm sorry, dear. Jennifer meant a great deal to you and meboth. But she did her job well, she kept you safe for eleven years. She... she deserves Elsyium..."_

_the last part she said mostly to herself, trailing off and looking down. Her eyes were close to tears, full of guilt and regret. The black flame was sad and dull._

_"Go now, my child, and find Matthew, son of Hephaestus, and Joshua, son of Apollo. They are only the beginning of your quest."_

_And then she was gone, and it was just me, standing in the doorway of the Hermes cabin, with a killer headache and a hell of a lot of questions for our activities director._


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay this is where it sort of coincides with PJO The Battle of the Labyrinth, and SonofHephaestus118's "Son of Hephaestus" -( in his later chapters anyway.)**

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><p>After I was claimed, everything just went downhill.<p>

"Aria!" I heard my name echo through the courtyard of Camp Half-Blood. I followed the sound to a frantic Raine Baxter, daughter of Dionysus, came rushing at me at 200 miles an hour.

"Rainie slow down!" I shouted, just in time for her to slide to a halt in the mud and fall on her back. I broke into hysterical laughing.

"Shut up," she grumbled, "It's not funny."

"Yeah," A voice said from behind me, "Yeah it is."

I spun around and instantly smiled.

"Aaron! You're back!"

He laughed, "Yeah. Have you seen that dog in the arena? It's massive!"

"_She_ is called a hellhound, and she is very friendly."

"Oh very protective over the puppy now, are we?"

"Ahem," Rainie cleared her throat, "Could you two give a girl a hand?"

We all laughed and Aaron and I helped her up out of the mud.

"I heard Percy tried to attack her," Rainie said, "Almost took his sword to her throat, but Quintus stopped him."

"Woops." I said, and we all laughed at the infamous Percy Jackson. The kid who came here when he was just 12 years old and pretty much stole our spotlight. Okay, I'm not trying to sound all jealous and stuck up and etc etc etc, but I did kind of like the feeling I got when Chiron said 'We have a problem', and everyone turns to me. Nowadays they turn to Jackson. Everything I did that ever impressed anyone isn't important anymore, because Jackson did something cooler.

'Oh, Aria killed a minotaur with a dagger.'

'Well Percy killed a minotaur with its _own horn_.'

'Aria escaped from Medusa's lair without getting turned to stone.'

'Percy escaped from Medusa's lair _and_ sent her _head _to Mt Olympus.'

'Aria made the Ares Cabin's trip mines backfire on them.'

'Percy drenched the whole Ares Cabin in toilet water.'

See what I mean? And he doesn't even know my name. That's what gets me. It's like the big hero just comes in to save the day then doesn't even look down to see who he's treading on.

Alright, I admit, I make mistakes, I mess up sometimes, but so does everyone else. People just like to pick on me because of my mom. After Percy came along people started accusing me and saying she's not really Nyx. All because of Jackson. And it's not just me; Rainie and Aaron and I used to be the top 3 demigods in camp. Now it's all changed.

"Aria?" Rainie cut in to my internal breakdown on Jackson and I snapped back to Camp Half Blood.

"I'm good. Sorry." She laughed and her and Aaron led me off to the Athena cabin so we could pack up some things for our upcoming quest.

"Alright, Annabeth said to just take whatever we need." Aaron said, walking into the little garden shed full of weapons.

"In that case I'm going to need a bigger backpack." Rainie groaned sarcastically. I laughed,

"We're _escorting_ two demigods to camp. How hard could it be?" Aaron raised an eyebrow at me,

"Tell that to Thalia Grace."

It went silent for a few seconds. Then Rainie backed up and knocked a spear off the shelf. It hit the ground with a loud _crack_ and started spitting bolts of blue light at her feet like firecrackers, making her hop up and down squealing. Aaron picked it up and hung it up and we all laughed at our clumsy little Rainie. Then we got to packing.

The quest was the same quest we'd been on for the past 4 years. Nyx's quest to find Matthew Walker and Joshua Kovalchik. It's not that we're incapable of finding a couple demigods, it's just that the amount of mist surrounding them was super thick and very _very_ confusing. We almost lost Aaron last time because he mistook a Dracanae for a girl scout - a girl scout with a _tail_, I might add.

This time was supposed to be different, though. Chiron said that the mist was dying out, somehow, and we had a better shot at finding them. We knew they were in California, that much was clear. What was also clear was the blinding amount of monsters surrounding them. I'd heard stories about San Francisco being monster-central, but the kind of numbers we were picking up was kind of over the top.

The plan was to get to California - in one piece - find Matthew and Joshua - in one piece - and get back to camp - in one piece.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for all the flashbacks, I promise this is the last one :) I think it just added a little depth to the characters, instead of just saying 'Rainie lost a sister' I wanted to show exactly what happened. I'll explain more later.**

**Enjoy !**

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><p>"Good luck to all of you," Chiron said as he waved us off for the second time this year, "May the Gods be with you."<p>

We nodded and set off down the path away from Camp with heads held high in confidence that maybe, just maybe, this time we'd find them. We had this little spark of hope that the mist was clear enough for us to find Matthew and Joshua and finally finish our 4 year quest, and earn back some of the respect we'd lost back at camp because it's taken us so long. As we walked along the dirt path to the road the three of us went over our plan again and again, sifting through it to find any flaws that we'd missed before.

"We'll have to take a plane," Rainie was saying, "It's the fastest way to California."

"Yeah," Aaron agreed, "But what about when we get there? How are we supposed to find them once we're there? I mean, California is a big place."

"San Francisco." I said simply. It just popped into my head suddenly. Like a whisper. I'd never thought about it before.

"What?" Rainie asked. Her lavender eyes flashed with a wave of sadness at the mention of it.

"San Francisco," I repeated slowly, "It's got to be."

"How do you know that?" Aaron asked.

"Just trust me. I have a good feeling about this."

"Well, not to rain on your parade, Aria, but I have a _bad_ feeling." Rainie had a twang of annoyance in her voice, but I heard the layer of fear and devastation that hid underneath her tough-girl attitude.

I understood why she wasn't terribly excited for San Fran. Not only was it Capital of Monster-ville and the biggest flytrap in the world for demigods, but her sister Diana disappeared there last year when she followed us on our quest. I guess what they say is true, and 3 really is a lucky number. The thing is, she wasn't supposed to _be_ on the quest; she just hitched along for the ride. She was only 9 years old when we lost her on the Golden Gate Bridge. 9 years old, and lost in monster central. And it was all our fault.

But Rainie wouldn't accept that she was gone. She kept this mindset that she was out there somewhere, fighting still, or maybe she was captured and we just had to rescue her. I just hoped she wouldn't put Diana before our quest. Something told me she was going to, and it wasn't going to end well. I knew I had to stop her, or convince her that Diana was really gone, but I had to do it delicately so we wouldn't lose Rainie as a friend.

If we were going to do this, we were going to do it together.

We reached the road and took a taxi to the airport with little conversation passing between us. We were still on edge with Rainie, not sure what to say in case we set her off in tears, or worse, get her angry. I drowned myself in my iPod headphones and waited patiently for someone or something to break the silence, but no one ever did. We just sat there sneaking quick hidden looks at each other to try and gauge each other's moods. No one liked talking about Diana, especially not Aaron. After all, he blamed himself for what happened to her.

"_Diana! Take my hand!" Aaron was shouting to the little blonde 9 year old over the roar of cars from behind him. It was rush hour, and the Golden Gate Bridge wasn't any exception to the San Francisco traffic._

"_I'm slipping!" Her soprano voice rang over the bars of the bridge railing, and Rainie Baxter spun around to see her baby sister hanging on for dear life, hundreds of feet above her head. Rainie and I were below the bridge, standing on an old tattered garbage-barge that a pair of hissing Gorgons had thrown us onto from the bridge. It was a miracle we were still alive, if we'd hit that water, we wouldn't be. Those gorgons were working for someone bigger. Someone who we only knew as 'Number One'. And Number One had spiked the whole San Francisco Bay with enough concentrated Nectar that one drop could kill a demigod stone dead. The perfect defense, a poisonous moat around the 'monster's castle' of San Fran, with the bridges being the only way in._

_And Diana Baxter, daughter of Dionysus, was dangling helplessly above it, holding on with one hand._

_And the only person who could save her was being attacked by a pair of deadly gorgons._

"_Diana!" Rainie called desperately for her sister, like maybe if she said her name loud enough she'd give her the strength to pull herself up. We watched in dismay as Aaron defended little Diana, battling the gorgons single-handedly with his celestial bronze daggers. He swung in a lucky shot, and one burst into shimmering dust, but the second didn't hesitate, and swung a clean punch into the side of his head, knocking him out cold. The gorgon then continued to walk over Aaron's body, and proceed to Diana._

_Diana looked down, judging the distance between herself and the barge. Maybe she could jump, I thought. Maybe Rainie and I could catch her, and she'd be okay. Aaron rolled over and crawled to Diana, but he was too late. With a few small words to Aaron, little Diana swung herself up enough to grab the gorgon's ankles, yanking her down to the Bay along with her._

"_No!" The scream ripped through Rainie as she watched in horror as her sister fell to her death._


	5. Chapter 5

"You're telling me I have to fly _coach_ from New York to San Francisco!" Rainie stared down at her ticket in disbelief.

"It's all I could afford," Aaron shrugged, "Sorry."

"Well unless you want to walk," I cut in, "You can deal with flying coach. It's not _that _bad."

"Have you flown coach before? You have to sit nose to nose with strangers. Sweaty nasty strangers with screaming babies and gas passing problems."

"Okay now you're just exaggerating." I laughed, and we walked to a Starbucks to get a few drinks while we waited. I ordered my usual Chai Latte, Rainie's classy Caramel Macchiato, and Aaron's classic Hot Chocolate, and Rainie and Aaron found some seats. As I paid for the drinks and took them to our table, a wave of uneasiness swept over me. I sat down only to flick my head around and scan the crowds milling about the place for any sign of danger, which was quite a task in an airport.

"You alright, Aria?" Aaron asked, concerned.

"No," I answered flatly, "Something's wrong."

"What is it?" Rainie asked, looking over her shoulder.

"It's just-"

And then I saw her. She was short, blonde, and she still had those little pigtail braids in her hair with the purple bows tied at the end. Her t-shirt was what made me notice her in the first place, bright fluorescent orange. Her necklace was a couple years off, missing some beads. Her eyes were the same color, tired and older, but it was still her. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand, twiddling it back and forth with her fingers. And then she looked at me. Directly at me. She had this serious look on her face, like she was dealing with a life or death situation right that very second. She was in trouble, I knew it. She took the paper, raised it up so I could see it, and then put it in her pocket. She nodded to me, and tapped her pocket twice. I looked down to my pocket, reaching my hand in out of curiosity, but there was nothing there. When I looked back up, she was gone.

"Aria?"

They had no clue what I had just seen.

"I'm fine," I said, straightening in my seat and taking a sip of my Chai, "It was nothing. Just anxious about the trip, that's all."

They bought it.


End file.
